By Richard Heinberg Driving is dangerous. In fact, it’s about the riskiest activity most of us engage in routinely. It requires one’s full attention—and even then, things can sometimes go horribly awry. The brakes fail. The weather turns roads to…
Category: Op-Ed
Decoding Article 6 of the COP24 climate negotiations
It is close to curtain call for the United Nations’ Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland, with ministers from around the world negotiating the text for a “rulebook” to implement the historic 2015 Paris Agreement for climate action. Amidst the various…
BNP seeks EC decision on using Khaleda image on posters
Dhaka, Dec 13 – BNP has sought Election Commission’s decision on using its jailed chairperson Khaleda Zia’s portrait in posters of the candidates of its 10 allies, who are contesting the 11th parliamentary elections with the ‘Sheaf of Paddy’ symbol.
The Euro at 20 and the futures of Europe
Weakened by a decade of unresolved economic crisis and shaken by the awakening of populism, the European Union (EU) project currently faces four disintegrating factors: Brexit, democratic disaffection, monetary and financial fragmentation and territorial dislocation. If EU member states want…
US Blasts migrant’s compact even as 180+ countries adopt it
As UN delegates met in Morocco to adopt a global compact to protect the rights and safety of refugees and migrants (GCM), the Trump administration launched a blistering attack condemning it as a violation of national sovereignty.
UN defiant amid last minute U-turns on Compact for Migration
Amidst negative sentiments and last-minute withdrawals from the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) by some member countries, the United Nations says the regrettable decisions are being fuelled by misinformation.
Time to adapt to changing climate: What it means for water?
by Greg Browder As COP24 in Poland reaches its mid-point, it is becoming distressingly obvious that reaching the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Centigrade will be extremely challenging. Recognizing that millions of people…
A UN conference undermined by 11th hour withdrawals
When the long-awaited UN conference focusing on the rights and safety of migrants and refugees takes off in Morocco, it will be a rare, if not an unprecedented meeting, for one reason: the withdrawal of at least seven member states…
Memory of Professor Wahiduddin Ahmed
MA Taher Khandakar A convoy of five vehicles started at 11:26 hours on 05/11/2018 (Monday) from the BUET campus, Dhaka, for Motlab of Chandpur District. The lead vehicle was an Ambulance of the Anjuman-e Mafidul Islam. Mr Anwar Hossain, Driver,…
Cop24: Move to prepare negotiating texts on Paris Work Plan
Katowice, 7 Dec (Prerna Bomzan and Meena Raman)- At a stocktake plenary held on 6 Dec, the Co-chairs of the UNFCCC’s Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA), informed Parties the time had come for the Chairs to…
Burma Buddhists need self correction to end Rohingya crisis
Though everybody knows Buddhists as peace-loving people, Iranian scholar Dr S Javad Mazloumi has said a new definition of Buddhism, seen in Myanmar, is one of many reasons why Rohingyas are suffering there and that definition needs to be corrected.
Looking beyond fossil fuels to reduce emissions
In midst of the 24th United Nations climate change conference (COP24), many are trying to double down in the search for practical, actionable solutions to the climate crisis: land itself.
Call for a win-win framework at COP24
An African delegation is in the Polish city of Katowice to join 30,000 delegates and thousands others from almost 200 countries attending the 4th edition of what has come to be known as annual climate change negotiation conferences organised under…
Victory of Leeds Palestine Solidarity students
By Junaid S. Ahmad Last week, students, led by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at the University of Leeds, immediately mobilized to demonstrate as soon as they found out that Zionist war propagandist, Mark Regev, was visiting campus to speak.…
World Soil Day: Soil health key to environment, human health
From Danielle Nierenberg Dec 4 – Greetings from Chicago! Tomorrow, I am joining Google, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other members of the Refresh Working Group to officially launch our report Refresh: Food + Tech from Soil to Supper.…
A cautionary tale to be had from Swedish school reforms
Since the general election in September, Sweden has found itself in a political deadlock awaiting the formation of a government. One of the issues dividing the two main parliamentary blocs is whether there should be a cap on profit margins…
Mobile phones exposed to growing cyber threats
Mobile phones are helping millions of low-income customers to access financial services for the first time, but they are also exposing them to new cyber threats they could never have imagined.
GARAGE transforms into a Contemporary Art Museum?
Monowara Begum Moni Moscow – It was really a bus garage inside of the Gorki Park near Moscow River in Russia’s capital Moscow. The building, completed in 1927, was an example of applying architectural beauty to an industrial facility.
Migrants send record remittance but overall poverty pertains
At the end of this year, migrants will have sent 466 billion dollars to family and friends in their countries of origin. Despite this record amount these remittances have little to no effect on the dire economic state of affairs…
Global debt Is at its peak
In the second quarter of 2018 global debt reached a new peak, climbing to 260 trillion dollars ($260,000 billion). At the same time, the global debt to GDP ratio crossed the 320% threshold for the first time. Of that total,…
Youth create businesses geared to protecting the environment
An organic pesticide safe for farmers and the environment, and carbonised fuel briquettes made from agricultural waste materials and organic waste are all business ideas that promote a green economy.
Why I became a disaster expert
By Armen Grigoryan Nov 26 2018 (IPS) – Thirty years ago, a powerful earthquake ripped through my home country of Armenia, leaving 25,000 dead, 500,000 homeless and annihilating an estimated 40 percent of the national economy.
Why inequality matters
There was a time, not long ago, when most economists did not consider inequality in the distribution of income and wealth all that important. True, in Scandinavia and Austria, for example, distributional issues were embedded in economic policy through “social…
A short history of US meddling in foreign elections
By Mehdi Hasan Meddling in foreign elections is bad. I think we can all agree on that. And almost everyone — bar Donald Trump — seems to believe that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 election. So that should…
NGOs Call for disinvestments in biodiversity destruction
A discussion held earlier this week at the ongoing Convention of Biodiversity’s (CBD) Conference of Parties in Egypt highlighted that grants to curb deforestation in the Amazon are not enough if they are accompanied with investments that increase the loss…
World’s last wild commercial fishery of pearl oysters
Australia’s remote north-western Kimberley coast, where the Great Sandy Desert meets the sapphire waters of the Indian Ocean, is home to the giant Pinctada maxima or silver-lipped pearl oyster shells that produce the finest and highly-prized Australian South Sea Pearls.
Living with Climate Change
By Patrick V. Verkooijen ROTTERDAM – For anyone still undecided about the consequences of global warming, the summer of 2018, one of the hottest on record, should have tipped the scales.Across far-flung longitudes and latitudes, regions are struggling with the…
Gender and the Arab City
By Lina Abirafeh BEIRUT – One of the top priorities for the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda is to make cities “inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.” City leaders can take a simple step that would go long a way toward…
Rethinking animal agriculture
By Paul Gilding TASMANIA – In mid-July, as a brutal drought decimated crops, some European dairy and meat farmers were forced to cull their herds early to reduce the number of animals they needed to feed. Such desperate decisions will…
Expectations high for first global blue economy conference
In a matter of days the world’s blue economy actors and experts will converge in Nairobi, Kenya for the first ever global conference on sustainable blue economy.